A very perfunctory episode of Lewis. The show seems to be going the same way as Midsomer Murders: paper thin characters, elaborate plots that lead nowhere, and classical scores to make it look sophisticated. The difference is that Lewis lacks Murders' self-awareness, and thus its humour. Murders hasn't been good for a long time, but it knows that, and almost makes up for by surrendering to its trashiness. Lewis still has airs and graces, which just underlines its inauthentic core. The dark intelligence of Morse has been replaced by cursory nods to academia. In this episode a Lewis Carroll fanboy is dug up by some botanists. A crude Christian cross marks the grave. Lewis (Kevin Whately) and Hathaway (Laurence Fox) discover that the victim was obsessed with Carroll's epic nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark, which he believed was written in a mathematical code. All of these potentially interesting details fizzle out as a more routine detective drama takes over. The writers are playing a game with us: you think you're about to see a smart, compelling mystery, but really it's just Midsomer posing as Oxford. Every now and then they throw in a "deep" moment to maintain the illusion, like a pub scene where Lewis inexplicably tells Hathaway: "you need a partner." This moment comes so out of left field it's almost funny. There's also the standard scene of Lewis waxing lyrical about grief and recovery to some bereaved character, which here feel utterly hollow. The character this time is a mother (Celia Imrie) who thinks her son was murdered, and has plastered her walls with "clues" to his death. Her story comes closest to poignancy. Otherwise this episode is a lot of nothing. The show could have worked if it was more honest and added some humour and excitement, but it adds layers of pseudo-seriousness which just leave you unsatisfied.